The Message

B

Directed by Gao Qunshu

Director Gao Qunshu's political thriller "The Message" is a taut, suspenseful film that boasts a strong premise that it nevertheless fails to live up to over the course of its rather drawn out running time.

Following a series of political assasinations aimed at the occupying Japanese army during the Sino-Japanese war, a group of Chinese intelligence officers working for the puppet regime are brought to a secluded mansion by the Japanese spy chief who suspects one of them of being a turncoat. A ruthless series of interogations follows as the Japanese try to smoke out the mole.

Despite its lengthy running time, "The Message" succeeded in holding my attention for its duration mand the film is inbfused with a suspense that makes it difficult to pull yourself away for the occasional bathroom break for fear of missing something. That said, Gao's film suffers from the same curse as many film's that boast seemingly ingenious plot devices, namely that it doesn't satisfactorily fulfill its own potential. With a premise like the one offered up by "The Message" there's an endless amount of possibilities for betrayal, surprise alliances, twists, and oif course massive amounts of suspense and tension that when something awesome doesn't materialize at ever juncture of the film, you can't help but feel like the director missed an opportunity. It's an impossibly high standard to hold a film to but as I said, a strong premise can often raise viewers expectations to unrealistically elevated heights.
From a visual standpoint, Gao's film is gorgeous, marrying an obvious attention to faitfully reproducing period detail with a dark and shadowy cinematography that perfectly captures the film's foreboding mood. The film's art direction reminded me a great deal of Ang Lee's "Lust Caution" and like the later film "The Message" is notable (in my opinion at least) more for its striking images than its content.